Various printing systems presently exist for printing color or black and white images upon a print medium such as paper. Inkjet printing systems typically include print cartridges (also known as pens) which contain ink and also include a printhead with nozzles to eject drops of ink onto a page or sheet of the print media. The print cartridges are typically mounted on a carriage which is arranged to scan across the print media along an axis as the print cartridges print a series of individual drops of ink on the print media. The series of drops collectively form a band of an image, such as a picture, chart or text. Between such scans, the print medium is advanced relative to the scan axis.
Known color inkjet printing systems typically utilize the following inks: dark cyan (C), dark magenta (M), yellow (Y), light cyan (c), light magenta (m), pigment black (k) and dye black (Z). In some systems, the C, M and Y inks are contained in a single print cartridge having three chambers communicating with a printhead. The c, m and Z inks are typically contained in a second three-chambered print cartridge. This print cartridge is often referred to as “photo” print cartridge. Because the k ink is particularly used for textual or monochrome printing, some systems additionally include a print cartridge having a single chamber containing the k ink.
Despite the many advances that have been made over the years, existing printing systems and print cartridges fail to provide consistent high-quality results when printing photos. Existing printing systems and inkjet print cartridges also fail to facilitate convenient, inexpensive printing of different image types.